NCAA Announces Proposed Rule Changes for Men's Basketball

The headline item in these changes will be the reduction of the shot clock however there are a few common sense changes that should improve the overall pace of the game.

#MBBRules Committee proposes reducing shot clock to 30 seconds with eye on increasing possessions and pace of play. pic.twitter.com/o5IgWevUky

— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) May 15, 2015

#MBBRules Committee proposes changes related to timeouts. pic.twitter.com/qrGYSL8tk7

— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) May 15, 2015

#MBBRules Committee proposes rules with goal of reducing physicality in the sport. pic.twitter.com/XW0iwZNeCN

— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) May 15, 2015

The 30 second shot clock should speed up the game though the debate rages on how much different it will make if rules regarding freedom of movement aren't enforced or improved. The Sporting News Mike DeCourcey has been beside himself in recent days over a potential 30 second shot clock to the point he probably should seek professional help. With UNC's pace of play, this change won't matter as much though it does increase the need for solid execution in the half court.

The proposed changes being greeted with the biggest cheers are the ones pertaining to timeouts. There will not be one fewer timeout with each team starting the game with four and having only three for the second half. If anyone thought Roy Williams was being stingy with his timeouts, wait until this goes into effect.

The other change in timeouts is merging a team timeout with the every four minutes media break. If a team timeout occurs within 30 seconds of the schedule media timeout or after it, the media timeout will happen then. The exception to this will be the first media timeout of the second half. Of all the changes, this makes the most sense. There is very little more annoying watching college basketball than having a team timeout followed by 10 seconds of game action followed by a media timeout.

The NCAA will again seek to put an emphasis on reducing physical play and increasing freedom of movement. The phrase "strict enforcement of defensive rules" is weirdly vague though it should be noted the replies to that tweet included people lamenting how much it would hurt Tom Izzo. Well that and playing UNC. At any rate, the 2013-14 season was supposed to be when the rules were enforced as written but that largely disappeared by the start of conference play.

Some of the other rule changes proposed include:

-Elimination of the 5 seconds closely guarded rule

-No live ball timeouts by coaches

-Potential penalty for players faking fouls when flagrant fouls are being reviewed

-Review of shot clock violations throughout the entire game(current this can only happen in the last two minutes)

-Class B technical fouls such as hanging on the rim, delay of game, etc. would be one shot instead of two.

-No prohibition on dunking during pregame warmups.

-Moving the charge arc out to 4 feet from the current 3 feet.

-An extra foul rule will be experimented with during the postseason NIT.

The proposed rules will need to be approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel scheduled to meet on June 8th.